SNOHOMISH - Dozens of Northwesterners are sharing their flood experiences and sometimes dramatic video on YouTube.com, the popular video sharing Web site that lets you post virtually any video for all the world to view over the Internet.

Richard Brayton was so moved by the raging lower Stillaguamish River, he created a music video and posted it on YouTube. Armed with a digital still camera that can shoot short movies, Brayton filmed the river as it nearly destroyed a fish ladder near Granite Falls.

Back at his Snohomish home, having never edited any video in his life, he figured out how to make a movie with his video clips. A fan of the rock group Tool, he added their version of Led Zeppelin's "No Quarter".

"It's seems fitting for the way the water was traveling through the canyon," says Brayton. The cabinetmaker figured out how to upload his movie to YouTube, labeled it "Granite Falls Flood" and within a minute it was running on the Internet.

YouTube was started in 2005 by a couple of hourly employees that worked at PayPal. Since then, the Web site has exploded in its popularity because it allows anyone, anywhere in the world to post non-objectionable videos for free. The videos are indexed and searchable by title and subject matter.

Veteran northwest hiker Jim Kuresman was on the Stillaguamish with his digital still camera that can also shoot movies. He felt so compelled to share his experience of the powerful flood that he put three videos on YouTube.

"There's no way I'm going any further and live to tell about it," Kuresman says in his narration as he walks along the banks. Kuresman had never posted anything to YouTube and found it very easy to do.

"It's not often you get a chance to see a flood like this and I wanted to share it with people," says Kuresman.

You can watch Richard Brayton's video at this link

You can watch Jim Kuresman's video at this link